World Cup Round Up: International Football Returns, Stadium Delays Worries, Ronaldo 2010

November 12th, 2007 | by: WC Bob |

At this very second, players the world over are putting away their club kits and taking time to re-learn their country’s national anthem. Indeed, we are looking at another couple weeks of international football and what a couple of weeks it shall be. We’ve got World Cup qualifying in South America, Oceania and Asia, the final qualifying matches for Euro 2008 and a bunch of friendlies for teams getting ready ahead of the 2010 World Cup draw in Durban later this week.

Here are some of the headlines from today.

Sven-Goran Erikkson is one of the few who actually believe that England will still qualify for Euro 2008. Of course, he probably also still believes that England will win the 2006 World Cup.

The deadlines are tighter than a pair of pants after a big holiday meal. That is the word according to organizers in South Africa who admit that getting two of the five stadiums being built done in time for 2010 will be a challenging endeavor. It doesn’t help that construction workers are continuing to strike.

Want to know what it will take for Ghana to win the World Cup in 2010? It will require $10 million. That is the amount that the country’s chairman of the African Cup of Nations committee says is required to bring in a coach to put the Black Stars over the top. A quality coach is a start. A few more players wouldn’t hurt either.

The seedings for the Asian World Cup qualifying has changed slightly with Iran now third and Japan/Saudi Arabia 4th. Australia are the top seed.

Brazil won the Beach Soccer World Cup for the 100th year in a row.

Ronaldo claims that he still has a shot of representing Brazil in the World Cup. Good luck with that. There are probably a half dozen Brazilian strikers who are better than Ronaldo today and in another couple of years there will only be even more.

Upcoming International Fixtures

Saturday, 16 November 2007
DjiboutiSomalia

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Vanuatu v New Zealand
Fiji v New Caledonia
Comoros v Madagascar
Argentina v Bolivia
Colombia v Venezuela
Peru v Brazil
Guinea-Bissau v Sierra Leone
Uruguay v Chile
Paraguay v Ecuador

European Championship Qualifying
Albania v Belarus, G, 19:00
Andorra v Estonia, E, 17:00
Bulgaria v Romania, G, 16:00
Czech Republic v Slovakia, D, 19:30
FYR Macedonia v Croatia, E, 19:00
Finland v Azerbaijan, A, 14:00
Germany v Cyprus, D, 19:00
Greece v Malta, C, 19:30
Holland v Luxembourg, G, 19:30
Israel v Russia, E, 18:00
Latvia v Liechtenstein, F, 16:00
Lithuania v Ukraine, B, 18:00
Moldova v Hungary, C, 17:00
Northern Ireland v Denmark, F, 19:45
Norway v Turkey, C, 18:00
Poland v Belgium, A, 19:30
Portugal v Armenia, A, 21:00
Scotland v Italy, B, 17:00
Serbia v Kazakhstan, A, 19:45
Spain v Sweden, F, 21:00
Wales v Rep of Ireland, D, 15:00

International Friendlies
Australia v Nigeria, 15:00
France v Morocco, 20:00
Mali v Senegal,
South Africa v USA, 13:30
Uzbekistan v China PR

Sunday, 18 November 2007
Tajikistan v Singapore
Syria v Indonesia
Thailand v Yemen
Turkmenistan v Hong Kong

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Ibrahim Alloub

Half A Dozen Better Than Ronaldo?
in my opinion
wait till he plays around 10 games for milan and he’ll probably be the most important player in brazil’s squad. its Ronaldo, Talent Doesnt just Die
Alex

Half a dozen better than Ronaldo?
Such as?

The only world class brazilian striker I can think of atm is robinho. Unless you plan to play Kaka upfront and slot Diego in the middle with Ronaldinho. Ronaldo is gold, he is just having a bad run. He has had a bad run with injuries, but if he can overcome them there is no reason he can’t go back to the national team. Who in my opinion is in need of a striker of his quality. He was the most important player (despite being unfit) for the brazil squad in the world cup despite having Ronaldinho and Kaka. What more evidence do you want?
http://Thereisonly1Ronaldo! Ujjal

Half a dozen players in brazil better than Ronaldo??? This writer is either new to football or hate Ronaldo.
He was, he is and he will be the greatest ever striker to play football ever!!!
Let him play4-5 matches for Milan then Dunga will pay his airfare so that he can fly to brazil and play!
http://www.jbonez.com jbonez

half a dozen brazilian strikers better than ronaldo? name one, name one striker better than ronaldo in the world…. can’t believe i ended up reading this trash on the internet -j
Football Boy

I agree that there probably aren’t half a dozen Brazilian strikers better than Ronaldo, but it has to be said that he isn’t exactly at the peak of his game at the moment.

All being said, I haven’t been keeping track of his form but I do know that Robinho is world class, Fred looks impressive as does Vágner Love. Ronaldo was one of the true greats and you’re right IA, talent doesn’t just ‘die’, but Ronaldo will have lost a yard of pace.

I don’t think he is the best striker in the world, and I feel that the likes of Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney and even Carlos Tevez on their day are probably some of the most impressive I’ve seen.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/world-cup-round-up-international-football-returns-stadium-delays-worries-ronaldo-2010.html#add Abs

half a dozen brazilian strikers better than ronaldo? dream on. why doesnt anyone else name gets mention when we talk about world class player apart from maradona, pele and ronaldo. i dont think i will be at all intrested in watching the world cup 2010, if ronaldo isnt playing. but here im planning to pay a fortune to go to south africa, to watch world cup. i mean go on im from a country which is giants in rugby, new zealand. confirmation of ronaldo playing 2010, will enable me to decide whether it will be worth spending that sort of money, to watch a international world cup.

If you ask me ronaldo is the best and has better skills then any other stricker in the world.